Jude Bellingham is perhaps the most wanted midfielder on the planet right now, with Real Madrid, Liverpool and Manchester City all gunning for his signature this summer. Manchester United, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain also hold slightly more distant interest.
But while the 19-year-old has all the potential to become the best player in the world in the coming years and potentially join any club he wants, it is actually something from the international side of the game that appears to be his most desired career achievement.
Bellingham made his senior England debut aged 17 in November 2020 and has become an increasingly critical part of Gareth Southgate’s team. The youngster, who doesn’t turn 20 until the summer, was a bench player at Euro 2020 but has been a starter since early 2022 and earned rave reviews for his performances at the World Cup in Qatar at the end of last year.
Bellingham has already captained Dortmund on occasion this season and has admitted that wearing the armband for England is something he considers the ‘biggest honour’ he could achieve.
“That would be the biggest dream and the biggest honour in football, I think, is to captain your country,” he told Channel 4 after England’s Euro 2024 qualifying win over Ukraine on Sunday.
“There’s a long pecking order that I highly respect and I’ll wait my turn. In the meantime, it’s picking up what I can learn from [more senior players]. This is the best place to do it.”
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Harry Kane is current England captain, a role he has held since 2018 just ahead of that year’s World Cup. The Tottenham striker is almost 30 and so while he isn’t exactly on the downward slope to retirement, he may not still be an England player by the time Bellingham is 24 or 25.
Jordan Henderson is current vice-captain but, at 32, is older than Kane. Harry Maguire is another senior player in his thirties, having been Manchester United captain since 2019 and wearing the England armband for a game against Ireland in 2020.
Bellingham’s most obvious competition for the armband when Kane decides to call time on his international career is 24-year-old Declan Rice, who is already full-time West Ham captain and is likely to join a club who can offer Champions League football sooner rather than later.
Dortmund are waiting for Bellingham to tell them the answer to that question. The player has been considering his future for some time but always planned to delay a decision as to whether he will stay put or…
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